


Let Us Begin

by Jaylee



Category: Invaders (Marvel), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Marvel 616/MCU Crossover, Marvel Universe, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), The Invaders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 20:49:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18746851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaylee/pseuds/Jaylee
Summary: Following the events of Avengers:Endgame Steve has his doubts about returning to the past to live. But then he meets Prince Namor and Jim Hammond. It's not, exactly, love at first sight, but they get there. Featuring Namor's attempt at pest control, Steve trying to get Jim to read The Hobbit, and a fully exasperated Peggy Carter.





	Let Us Begin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ImperiusRex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperiusRex/gifts).



> Huge thanks to ImperiusWrecked (SilverNight88 here on AO3) for beta-ing this for me. She's the best!
> 
> Follows the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame so there are spoilers present. Just a warning.

“If looks could kill, Peg, I’m pretty sure all of SHIELD, and the entire population of Camp Lehigh would be dead right now,” Steve announced as he peered through the glass at the prisoner. Or rather, peered through the glass at the prisoner’s rather scathing glare, which seemed cross enough, and petulant enough, to wither the entire room, the camp, and possibly the state of New Jersey.

“Hmmm?” Peggy asked, distracted by something more pressing at her desk, while Steve continued to stare at SHIELD’s newest captive, remember it was rude to stare, look away, only to find his eyes training once more on the exotic man in the green speedo, who, if his facial expressions were an indication, alternated between wishing Steve to die on the spot, and wanting Steve resurrected so he could die more painfully the next time.

Steve didn’t know why the guy was so cross with him, it wasn't as if Steve was the one who caught him and imprisoned him here. Since Steve’s miracle resurgence in the 1950’s, Peggy, and Howard, too, actually, had both been keeping a keen eye on him, as if they expected him to disappear at any moment.

They wouldn’t so much as let him punch somebody. It was all rather annoying. So instead he sat at a desk and questioned every life choice Peggy and Howard had ever made until they inevitably got perturbed enough to let him back into the field. That was the long-term goal anyway.

For lunch he got glared at by aquatic humanoids with cute little pointed ears. Because everybody, even time traveling past/future/past-again people, needed hobbies.

And everyone thought the past would be boring.

Speaking of which… “I mean, is it right to lock the guy up like this, he’s from a different species, maybe he was just trying to say hello in the time-honored tradition of his people.”

“He tried to flood Manhattan,” Peggy answered curtly.

“But Peg, you’ve been to Manhattan. So have I. Is it any great loss? I mean, really. The rat population alone…”

Ah ha, Steve saw the guy grin at Steve’s words. Sure, it was a blink and you missed it type situation, but Steve would take it. Apparently Atlanteans did possess a sense of humor.

Steve shot the guy a grin, and his best “I’m on to you” expression and got glared at, harder, in return.

Peggy, however, was in a legitimate Mood™. Which may or may not have something to do with Steve explaining to her, just that morning over coffee and toast, and in intricate detail, how Hydra had infiltrated her life’s work and Steve had had to tear it all down in the future. Admittedly, Steve probably should have used a bit more tact when describing what went down, or what would go down, or what may go down, whatever, but he was just about to go stir crazy and that  _ never _ led to good things.

“He also stated, quite clearly, that humanity was useless, infuriating waste of the oxygen the plankton of his oceans produced,” she continued.

“Oh that parts been confirmed by scientist in the future,” Steve stated, pointing at the Atlantean and grinning when he smirked at Peggy’s narration of events.

Steve was only scowled at this time. It was progress and Steve would take it.

“Seventy-five percent of the Earth’s oxygen actually does come from plank…” Steve continued, only to be glared at from a far more feminine, far scarier, source.

Aaaaand, Steve was shutting up now.

“Be that as it may, threatening the lives of American citizens,” Peggy continued, rubbing the bridge of her nose between her thumb and pointer finger, “On New York soil, is not something SHIELD takes laying down. He has the power over water. He controls the fish in the sea. He must be brought to reason.”

Steve waited a beat. Then another. And then, because he was a masochist and, as Sam and Natasha had both accused him of on more than one occasion, possessed the survival instinct of a fruit fly, he said, “Okay, but did I tell you about the time that SHIELD was going to  _ nuke _ Manhattan just because a few measly little aliens?”

Steve knew he had gone too far when a book went flying past his head and a pair of heels went storming noisily out of the room, each click-clank angrier than the one before it, slamming the door on their way out.

Steve knew there was flowers and groveling in his near future. He and Peggy had decided to take things slow. To actually date and get to know each other again before jumping into commitment. As such, Steve was on pretty shaky ground with her. But, catching the fish man’s grin once more at Steve’s antics, then hastily try to hide it again, had made all future groveling worth it.

Steve had thought he had left all other superpowered people behind when he left the future. Had accepted that he’d be different, unique, when going back, save Bucky, who under Steve’s immediate instruction, had been rescued early on and was now working for SHIELD just like everyone else Steve knew.

The difference being that Peggy and Howard actually let Bucky punch things. Not that Steve was jealous... much.

It was just… it made Steve a little... less lonely to know that the Atlantean prince and all his people, existed.

* * *

 

SHIELD’s other infamous prisoner was a delight. No, seriously, Steve was halfway in love with the soulful android already.

In fact, he’d told Peggy just this morning, “Peggy, I am leaving you for Jim Hammond.”

To which Peggy had replied, nonchalantly, “I do so hope you two have a happy life!” which taught Steve that maybe a) he should cut Peggy some slack with the ‘future’ revelations because the annoying her plan was working a little too well and wow did she answer that one quickly, and b) she could have at least pretended like she’d miss him, even a little. But Steve would worry about his bruised ego later because he and Jim were going to discuss The Hobbit today, for their newly formed book club, and Steve did love him some Tolkien. Just as he loved spending time with his newest friend.

“So, did you read it?” Steve asked, as he entered Jim’s room.

Jim looked up immediately from his desk, and at the sight of Steve the smile the android gave him, lit up the room like the sun.

Steve felt his heart speed up, just a little, a warmth spreading through him. It was great to have this, a friend. He didn’t consider Howard or Peggy friends at the moment, they were  _ jailers _ and he’d left most of his friends behind in the future. While he didn’t regret returning to the past he had promised Tony, outright promised him, and Tony had made Steve cross his heart and everything. And something about a needle in the eye? It was gross. Anyway, he’d promised that he’d do his best to ‘get a life’, to find a family, find something beyond superheroing that he could cling to, Steve still questioned every day whether or not leaving his old/new life was, well, wise.

And then he’d found Jim. Who SHIELD was keeping because the android, new to life and inexperienced with deceit, had been found by exactly the wrong person when he had escaped the prison his creator had locked him in, and there had been just a little bit of crime and pyrotechnics. Minor skirmishes, really, no big deal. That one SHIELD agent was set to recover from his third degree burns any day now, and for the record the agent had been an infant to sit there and cry about a few little minor burns.

It was all completely forgivable, of course, or so Steve told Peggy, and Howard, daily, because someone as great as Jim didn’t deserve this, but apparently both Peggy and Howard saw fit to educate Jim on law and order, themselves, the sticks-in-the-mud. Steve thought, well, if the poor guy was stuck here, just like Steve was, and just like the surly sea prince in the other room, Steve might as well make it fun for all of them. At Howard and Peggy’s expense, of course, but they rather deserved it for. being. jailers.

Jim was easy to win over. He was affable, he was kind, he was the most human, non-organic person Steve had ever met (sorry Vision). The sea prince, however, not so much, but Steve continued to work on it. He’d actually got Namor (as that was his name, Steve had found out) to simply roll his eyes versus of glower at him the other day, so hey, that had to mean  _ something _ .

Eventually he’d introduce the two of them, Jim and Namor, and then they’d plot their great escape, and form a new… old?... superhero team, and… the three of them would go out and punch people. Preferably Nazis. Hydra!Nazis. Because Steve had first-hand knowledge that they were still around. Until then...

“I did read it, yes, but before we go into that, I’d like to discuss… Ultron.”

Steve groaned. He had known Ultron would be a sticking point for Jim, who was, understandably, worried about his place in society given his origins. But Jim was always so eager to hear of the adventures of the Avengers and Steve couldn’t have very well left Ultron out, he was one of the Avengers’ greatest threats. All Steve’s other stories just got so boring after a while.

Still it bothered Jim, that a being similar to himself, although not at all like him, had killed so many people and that had been when Steve had confirmed that Jim was one hell of a person, not an android,  _ a person _ , because Jim cared, because Jim was so horrified at the loss of life.

Horrified enough that he kept bringing it up.

“Ultron had nothing on you, Jim,” Steve assured his friend, “I’ve told you this before. He wanted to exterminate mankind, because he figured that was the best way to save the Earth. And given the pollution content in the air above Los Angeles, he wasn’t exactly wrong, there - I still can’t believe the Dodgers live there now, I mean, why? But whatever - even if his methods were murderous and cruel. Natasha always stated that Ultron spending the first five minutes of his life finding the answers to life on the internet was probably the greatest mistake of fate. But, what can you do? You, though, you don’t want to hurt anyone, correct?”

The question was rhetorical. As all good questions were.

“No, I do not,” Jim said firmly.

“Then congratulations, Jim Hammond, that makes you possess more humanity than half the people I know, past and present.”

Jim beamed at him, and Steve thought, the past didn’t entirely suck. Maybe he’d made the right decision after all.

“Wait, Steve?” Jim asked, interrupting Steve’s reverie, “what is the internet?”

Then on second thought, maybe traveling to the past was a mistake after all.

* * *

 

Steve wasn’t an idiot. Quite the contrary he had known when he had made the decision to return to the past, that he and Peggy might not work out. A decade had passed since they had last seen each other. They had grown apart. Things like this happened all the time. And sure, Peggy had kept a picture of skinny, pre-serum him on her desk, but relationships weren’t based on photographs.

And try as they might, he and Peggy just weren’t meant to be, and they’d finally had that conversation that morning.

Steve picked up that picture now, gently, while he waited for Peggy to return to her office so they could discuss how much longer she and Howard could feasibly keep treating him with kid gloves by not sending him out into the field, where he belonged, wondering what he was going to do, now.

“You were rather cute, back then,” he heard an aristocratic voice from behind him announce, “for a human anyway.”

And Steve smiled through his tears. “Wow Namor, you were  _ this  _ close,” Steve said, turning and holding his fingers a mere inch apart, “to giving a compliment without it becoming backhanded. People might even mistake you as becoming soft.”

Namor stared at him through the glass wall of his cell, eyebrow raised. “Not going to happen.”

Steve felt a little laugh escape despite himself. “Yeah, I figured it was long-shot.”

They sat for a moment in silence. It was comfortable, and not repressive, as silence often is, Namor’s presence almost… steadying, to Steve’s frazzled nerves.

“Regretting our choices, are we?” Namor asked, because the days were long and the nights were longer and by now Namor had heard Steve’s whole history, and future, and history again, ten-fold.

“No, I made the right choice,” Steve said firmly, because this much was still true, “I told you that the future has a complicated relationship with Captain America. I woke up from the ice and someone is asking me to sign trading cards. Everyone knows who I am. There’s a display in the Smithsonian, for christ’s sake. I promised Tony I’d find a normal life, and I wasn’t going to find it there. At least here no one is photoshopping my head onto the bodies of nude men and trying to pass it off as me on the internet.”

“You’re not going to find it here, either, this ‘normal’ you seek,” Namor said with such confidence that Steve instantly felt his hackles raise.

“And why not?” he asked, affronted on principle. There had to be a normal  _ somewhere _ .

“Because you are not normal,” Namor answered, checking his fingernails, as if he hadn’t just sent Steve’s entire world askew with one nonchalantly uttered sentence, “you are the single most tolerable human I’ve ever met, therefore you are not normal, and you shouldn’t try to pretend to be for anyone’s else’s sake, either. Who you are is… fine.”

And that was… wow, Steve was, strangely, touched.

Namor was better at the compliment thing than Steve had ever given him credit. That was his bad.

“I, uh, thanks, Namor, that’s very nice,” Steve stammered, uncertain where to go from that.

“Just don’t let it get out that I was being… nice,” Namor shrugged, grinning.

They sat again in silence, still just as comfortable, until Namor once again saw fit to break it.

“So, you were telling me once that same sex relationships were more accepted in the future, correct?” the sea prince asked.

And, okay, Steve had mentioned that once, and wow did that come out of nowhere, but whatever. This was a question Steve could answer.

“Yes, it is. It was one thing I loved about the future,” Steve reminisced, “people were more tolerant. I mean, there were still bigoted dirtbags, don’t get me wrong, but overall tremendous progress had been made towards acceptance of all people despite race, gender or sexual orientation.”

“I think I like this future of yours,” Namor announced, somewhat wistfully, “I look forward to seeing it. The natural way, of course, by living it.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, because helping society reach that point faster was going to be his mission here in the past.

Still though, the topic was rather random. He wondered why Namor had brought it up.

Not that he had time to ponder that question for long…

“And Steve, what, exactly is the internet? Are nude pictures of you common there?”

Jesus fucking  _ christ _ .

* * *

 

“The Atlantean and the android have become friends,” Peggy announced. “Steve, they’re inseparable, and it’s rather all your fault. Did you know that Jim just keeps burning his way out of his cell? Do you know how many walls we’ve had to replace?”

Peggy’s foot was tapping. Her expression a cross between fond and exasperated. Her arms crossed. But none of that was the weird part in all this.

No, that part was pretty par the course for Peggy’s interactions with Steve these days.

The weird part was Namor and Jim... getting along?

One day, a month or so back, when Steve had been feeling exceedingly bored instead of just marginally thus, and he’d grabbed the keys to Jim’s cell, told the other blond he wanted to introduce him to somebody, and brought him to Namor’s cell.

Namor had scowled upon introduction.

Jim had scowled back.

Namor had then made a crack about being surrounded by annoying blonds. For which Jim had lit up like a Christmas tree and threatened to teach Namor some manners via a trip to the burn unit, as one did when in possession of fire powers and confronted by such rudeness. Namor had scoffed and said he’d like to see the ‘firebug’  _ try _ , and there, Steve figured, went his plan for world domination with his two new besties at his side.

But he absolutely would  _ not _ give Peggy the satisfaction of seeing his surprise at this most recent turn of events. He would not.

“Awww, but it’s so beautiful, Peg,” he said instead, “fire and water coming together in the infinite joys of friendship. I could cry. I mean, you have to see the poetry, here.”

Peggy arched a brow. Then smirked. And Steve knew then he was in trouble.

“Yes, beautiful,” Peggy agreed readily, “in fact, so beautiful, this is now your responsibility, Steven. If anything, anything at all, should happen as a result of this blessed union, it’s on your head.”

Well… shit. Steve’s chances of being let out of Camp Lehigh for good behavior just evaporated in smoke, quite literally because Jim could generate that without even trying.

Steve’s only recourse was to confront this situation head-on.

“I don’t know what you two are planning…” Steve proclaimed as he marched authoritatively into Namor’s cell, determined to set a few boundaries now that all this, this... ‘getting along’ was going on, only to stop short at the sight of Jim... and Namor… playing cards?

“I am so confused right now,” he finished instead, shoulders drooping.

Namor smirked. So far, so good, this was normal. Right was the way of things.

Then Jim smiled and said, “Steve! We’ve missed you! So much. We were wondering when you were going to join us, here, pull up a chair.”

Steve eyed them suspiciously but did as he was told.

“What are you two planning?” he asked, once settled. No use in beating around the bush.

“Oh nothing, just our escape,” Namor replied dismissively, eyeing the cards in his hand without a care in the world.

“Oh good, I was afraid it was something fully illegal instead of only marginally illegal,” Steve retorted, crossing his arms and absolutely not pouting. Steve did not pout. He did manly things, like brood. And he wasn’t doing that, either. For the record.

That said… They were leaving him? Just like that? Did late night book clubs and awkward heart-to-hearts composed of 90% sarcasm mean nothing to them?

“Oh, don’t look like that, we’re taking you with us,” Namor announced, calmly shuffling his hand. “You’re ours now and when we fuck you for the first time, I’d rather it not be on the plebeian sandpaper they call sheets here in this...  _ facility _ . Satin would work better, I think.”

Steve gaped.

Then gaped some more.

All while Jim and Namor smiled secretly at each other, then at him, then back at each other, their expressions full of promise.

Of all the...

“Just so we’re clear,” Steve replied, after embarrassingly long and drawn out minutes of utter speechlessness, “the three of us? That was  _ my _ great idea.”

“Of course, it was, dear,” Jim said placatingly, as he stood to stand over Steve’s chair to lean down for a kiss and Namor watched them with interest.

* * *

 

“You want to tell me about her?” Future!Sam asked, looking at Steve’s wedding band.

And Steve smiled as he thought silently in his head, “you mean them?”

But instead he just replied, “No, I don’t think I will.” And left it at that.

  
  



End file.
